US Airways To Charge Fee For Paying Fee
US Airways must be running out of ideas. Instead of coming up with a new fee for a previously free service, the dullards in corporate could only muster a top-off on a pre-existing fee. See, for a while US Airways has charged $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second, but now there will be a $5 additional fee if you pay those fees in person rather than online. In other words, a fee for paying a fee. A bit of a watery effort, if I may say so . Come now, gents, put your thinking caps on. We're looking for a little more sizzle and crackle in our airline fee innovations.
US Airways 1Q loss shrinks; adds fee for checking bags at airport instead of online [LA Times] (Thanks to Redwoodflyer!) (Photo: jurvetson)
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Easy Jet in the UK already does this.
It's gonna make even more people try to take their big bags on as "carry ons" -- don't have to pay for those at all if they make you check them at the gate, and there's always the chance they'll let you carry them on
Next story will be of an airline that switches its 800 reservation number to a 900 number that charges people $1.99 a minute to stay on hold and make reservations/book tickets.
Yep nothing new here. Not even that inventive either, I know a number of services who charge a fee for how you pay the fee.
My favorite is PSE&G here. They charge a 5 dollar fee to pay your bill online, but none if you pay via autodeduct or via check.
I got around this one by paying via online checking. Lets me review how much I owe, but prevent them from having direct access to my bank information.
I wonder what the bankruptcy fee is?
Because I'll probably be paying that too.
The best way to avoid USAir's fees is to not fly them under any circumstances.
Bust out your phone or laptop right in front of them, hop online and pay the checked bags fee. Then tell them to suck it.
Don't get me wrong, I like Consumerist, but...
"...the dullards in corporate could only muster a top-off on a pre-existing fee. See, for a while US Airways has charged $15 for the first checked back..."
Not a huge deal, but when you call someone a dullard, it might be good to run through an extra proofreading session.
Glass house. Stones. ; )
How about a "thinking about complaining" fee. Any slightly quizzical look, an offhand upward lilt to the end of a sentence or merely a glance filled with smoldering, impotent rage would be enough to tack it on.
Make it per-incident, and give each Customer Service Rep a spinning wheel that dings at each increment for that extra carnivalesque thrill!
Instead of coming up with these ridiculous reasons, why don't they just up their checked baggage fee? I mean, yes, this is sneakier, and customers probably won't know it before they purchase a ticket, but sooner or later this will get around, and since they are already on the bottom of the customer service ladder as far as airlines go, you'd think they don't want to make matters worse. I wish people would stop flying them to teach them a lesson!
Now this is just getting silly. Like stupid silly.
@MyPetFly: ??? A typo does not make one an idiot. Can you please submit everything you ever wrote online so we can all proofread your stuff?
Give baggage handlers big pin-on buttons saying, "Be a shame if anything happened to your pet you've handed us for safekeeping far outside your line-of-sight. A darned shame."
Either a donation cup or for customer ease, one of those portable ATM scanners, could be fitted into an attractive belt holster with the US Air logo.
@Frank Murphy: I can't completely avoid USAir... they are the ONLY airline that serves the area where my mother in law lives. OTOH, when we need to fly there because we can't afford the time it would take to drive, we can probably avoid checking a bag. We drive for longer stays there.
I didn't call them idiots, and I doubt that the folks at US Airways are idiots. Misguided maybe, but not idiots.
Ain't nuthin' but a thang.
@Frank Murphy: Are you sure they won't charge a fee for switching to another airline? They should call it: "paying with your wallet fee"... or, "hey! you're not so stupid after all fee".
This basically means that if you book a flight on US Air using Orbitz, Travelocity, etc., that you're stuck with the extra $5 fee, right? I don't fly often enough to know, but I just recently booked a business flight on US Air via Orbitz and was never given the option to pay the baggage fee. Will I be able to check my bag online and avoid it?
I read this and had to double check. I thought I had visited theonion by mistake.
Yikes.
Great, and I'm flying to Florida Tuesday morning, with 2, maybe 3 checked baggage!
Well, you can spin it as "paying a fee to pay a fee" if you're just out to smear the airline regardless of what they do -- anyone can claim that the difference charged is a "fee to pay a fee". The airline probably thinks of it this way: you get a discount to pay your bag fee in advance online, or higher at the airport. Just like you get a discount for buying tickets in advance versus the last minute at the airport.
This sort of claim could be made of anything that's priced differently online versus at the store. Digital camera cheaper on a store's website than at the physical store? "In store purchase fee!" But that's ridiculous.
That's why I don't put much stock in these sorts of stories and people who distort the situation to make their target seem extra evil. Sure, the airline could have annoying business practices, and you're free to decline to pay these charges by flying someone else. But don't make it out to be something it's not.
The airline charges for baggage, differently if you buy in advance. That's it. It's not a fee to pay a fee.
@Trai_Dep: Or maybe just a "thinking about flying US Airways" fee.
US Airways charges your credit card $5 for just thinking about flying.
@kepler11: Nope, it is a fee, to pay a fee. Yep. It's just ''cheaper'' online.
And what's with the ''bold'' abuse?
@Erie Tan: you're good. from the article:
"The change applies with tickets booked on Thursday for flights beginning July "
@kepler11: They established the price for checking bags in person, and online. Then, they added an additional fee for checking your bags in person. It's a fee fee. Or, a fee on top of a fee.
It's just a cheap gouge at people who didn't plan ahead, and its not one that they can reasonably avoid - they can't fly without their luggage. If the airline company truly wanted to avoid the costs associated with carting people's luggage around, then it wouldn't matter if you registered your bags in person, or online, the price would be the same. So there you go. That's the reality. It's not a fee to pay a fee, and its not merely an annoying business practice, it is a deliberately consumer-hostile gouge to pad their bottom lines. Was that better?
The thought of a fee to pay a fee makes me think of those Xzibit/Pimp My Ride posters you find all over the interwebs...
Charging extra to bring luggage along is indecent enough. Trying to justify it is Orwellian.
I am told that the next innovation will be pay-per-mile seat-belts: A small slot in the seat ahead of you will accept bills and credit card.
Seats will also be optional. Your basic coach ticket will only include access to a communal pole and 1.875 square feet of floor as personal space. 10 passengers per pole - and register early or you may end up holding a ceiling strap.
Is it me or are airline slowly becoming closer to third-world buses?
this constant fee~Mongering fucking sux.
screw you, u.s. airways!
@kepler11: lying spin dr.
if they charge EXTRA for using their service without increasing its value, its a fee.
saying 'the value add is having it taken care of before you arrive', is bullshit
a "Lesser of two Evils" argument is wrong by default.
AT&T charges 5 dollars to pay your bill in cash. :/
@Jim Topoleski: You're paying 5 dollars to pay your bill, which is not a fee, with a credit card. The 5 dollars is used to offset the money that the credit card company charges your utility company.
It's not the same.
I'm still waiting for the minimum luggage fee like a 2 drink minimum at a bar. That way they can still gouge the folks who rob them of their luggage fees by shipping their luggage via a more reliable method.
@Frank Murphy: which is fine, except sometimes you can't.
I'm a student, and oftentimes for conferences our travel is booked for us, through a travel agency (so the hosting organization just pays them, and doesnt have to reimburse people all over the place), and for the next trip I booked... yup, USAir. No choice, they give us what is cheapest.
US Airways will be the next bankrupt airline.
I can sorta see why they'd want to do something like that. It's better for them to know beforehand how many bags you intend to check in since it will let them better estimate how much cargo they're going to carry and be able to better manage gas usage, as well as possibly do a more efficient job at carrying 3rd party cargo. Charging a fee for adding bags at the last minute will mean more people telling the airline ahead of time how much baggage they'll need.
On a more sinister level, it might get people to over estimate their baggage use.
@bxbrett: Stop giving them ideas! So help me God, if I see your idea become a reality in the near future... *shakes fist* ;-)
@Christy Casper: The only reason I can come up with for why they'd rather only charge people at the counter more is if they're also trying to do something about the lines in the airport. Maybe they think if they can make more people do stuff online they can cut staff (or it's to compensate for having already cut staff).
US Airways is on my "do not fly" list after my experience flying back from Vegas in January.
After paying $15 to check my bag, I proceeded to carry-on my backpack, stow it in the overhead along with my coat, and sit down in my seat. As the plane started to fill up, the steward announced over the intercom that "all non-rollerbags must be removed from the overhead and stored under the seat in front of you so that there will be enough room for everyone carrying on luggage." They then proceeded to walk down the plane and remove all backpacks, purses, and coats, demand to know the identity of the owner, and force them to stow the items at their feet.
Basically, I paid an extra $15 to have *less* legroom so that they could fit in all the extra rollerbags that people might otherwise have checked had there been no fee. (This was, of course, in addition to all of the nickles/dimes for everything else on the plane.)
@Nic Deese: 'sup dawg, we heard you like fees, so we put fees on your fees so you can pay while you pay.
@Turcicus: The fee-paying comes during online check-in, which you can typically do up to 24 hours before your flight, regardless of where you bought the ticket. Of course you may be paying a fee to Orbitz, Expedia or whoever, for the actual purchase, because they're just as much in love with fees as the rest of the service industry.
@Zain: No jackass, its REGARDLESS if I pay via a credit card or check. I could pay via a check online and have it STILL cost me 5 dollars
Unless I have it autodeducted, paying via the web costs 5 dollars.
THATS A FEE
They even tell you its a fee.
wow. just wow.
Maybe they' should call it a "monetary acceptence fee"